February Four Day Weekend

February break just passed, which means plans with friends, family, or just alone. Everyone was so excited to get this week off to spend time away from the ever so stressful school. Sadly, this year our nine day break turned into a four day weekend due to an unexpected snow storm which occurred Jan. 24-26.

Here you can see the calendar of the February break make-up days posted on the Woodstock High School webpage.

Photo courtesy of: Ashley Watkins

The Woodstock education board decided that we are not a school that just lets this slide. They made the decision to cut our break instead of adding extra days to the end of the year, even though other counties are not concerned about these days. On these days, teachers were told to continue teaching, knowing that a lot of kids would not be here. There are many different opinions on this from students and teachers.

Interview with Mackenzie Rich, a sophomore:

Why do you think that our county chose to make up the school days that we missed, while other counties did not decide to make up the days?

“I do not know why our county chose to make up these days. Most of my friends from other counties did not have to go to school these days, which i think is a bit unfair.”

Do you think that you were able to be productive as a student during these days? Why or why not?

“No, I do not think that I was able to be as productive during these days as I would be during normal days. Many people were absent, so teachers did not teach as much material as they usually would. Some classes we learned things in those three days that we could have learned in one day.”

Do you think that it was a good idea to add those days in?

“No, I do not think that it was a good idea. There were not many people at school during those days, so it did not seem efficient. Not many classes were productive. In some classes we just cleaned or did nothing.”

How many students were in your classes?

“The first day there were about 75 percent of students there, but then it just went downhill from that. Barely any people were at school on Friday.”

So many students were absent that they just had a box full of absent notes at the front office!

Photo courtesy of: Ashley Watkins

If you thought that it was not a good idea, how do you think the county should have handled it if they could have done it differently?

“I think that the county should have done this if we missed even more days. I understand that we had to make up the days, but it just seemed useless for only three days. If we missed more days later on, then they should have made us make up some days maybe by extending our last few days.”

Were there any plans that you had to cancel due to the late announcement of those make up days?

“Yes there were! Many people had to cancel plans like going to the beach or spending time with family. I think it was very last minute, so many people who made plans ahead of time were upset or just didn’t bother and still went on their vacations.”

Interview with Ashley Dexter, our Woodstock High School World history teacher:

Why do you think that our county chose to make up the school days that we missed, while other counties did not decide to make up the days?

“Cherokee County tends to have more days out for weather than Cobb, this “Snow Make-Up Day” plan was created after Snow-pocalypse.”

Do you think that you were able to be productive in teaching during those days? How or how could you not?

“Yes, but I think I had higher than average attendance for most of my classes.”

Did you think that it was a good idea to add those days to teach or not?

“I understand why the county executed the plan to have snow make-up days, but I wonder if it was really beneficial.”

How many students were in your class on average?

“I had 2/3 of my students Wed & Thurs, but more like 1/3 on Friday.”

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Pictures of the amount of students in class on Wednesday versus Friday.

Photo courtesy of: Ashley Watkins

If you thought that it was not a good idea, how do you think the county should have handled it if they could have done it differently?

“I would have preferred to use those days as “online learning days” – let’s try having teachers post assignments to Canvas to see what could be accomplished it we choose to use Canvas in the future to make-up time rather than Snow Make-up days.”

Were there any plans that you had to cancel due to the late announcement of those make up days?

“Not much, I was looking forward to some time with my kids & husband but I didn’t have to cancel any travel plans.”

While some thought that these days were efficient, others thought that it was all for nothing. People stressed over plans just to go to school to do almost nothing. For those who went all three days, they saw how each day the amount of students decreased dramatically. It is understandable why the county wanted to do these make up days, but many think that it could have been handled in a better way.